I’m already ready to dive back into this world, just have to grab some cheese first. I love how this author crafts this world and the magic that comes from it. I loved the concept of a cheese emporium but how Mika talked about the cheese was beautiful. I also loved how Eloren was trying to find herself after leaving the upheaval that happened in the city and her having to rectify her part in the city. Her and Garyn also were so sweet and patient with each other, like they didn’t want to spook each other with how their feelings had changed from just friends to more. I love how this author balances cozy with just a tiny splash of problems for the main characters and can’t wait to see what’s next.

This is an excellent entry in the Spellshop series (hopefully not the last - I don't know how many books are planned in this universe but I'm hoping there are still more coming!). I love these books because, in true cozy fantasy style, the stakes might seem high but the problem is always resolved without too much drama. This is a great example of that - there aren't many opportunities in real life to gather the townsfolk together and overthrow the corrupt leader (but man, don't we wish we could...), but that makes it all the more satisfying when it happens so easily in this book. Eloren is grieving, which is different than the other protagonists from the other books, and it was an honor to walk alongside her on her journey to find her passion and purpose. I've been there, and occasionally am still there, and it was healing in a way to get to experience that sense of discovery with Eloren.

While each book in this series has been lovely, The magical Cheese Emporium really takes it to the next level. It does a great job of balancing grief with hopefulness and has a very satisfying ending.

Another cozy slice of life story from the talented Sarah Beth Durst. Returning to the Crescent Islands we get to see more of the most whimsical world full of love, cheese, and winged cats. Our main protagonist Eloran has just returned to her home island after the fall of the empire and the tragic loss of her best friend, her job and her home. There she makes new friends, reconnects with her childhood best friend and has to find a new purpose in life while still grieving and dealing with the recent trauma.

So many fantastical beings were added to this world including a special sentient plant, a mouse made of cheese, and a fascinating cheese making monster. While maintaining many cozy elements heavy topics were also explored including grief, trauma, and politics. I think the author did a fantastic job of balancing these elements out.

Overall a very fun and enjoyable entry into this series and I can't wait for the next one! Maybe a certain lighthouse keeper will be included?

Thanks to netgalley for an advanced reading copy for review.

Durst has perfected the cozy fantasy. Fourth in the stand alone series, each book has eclipsed the last one,

Following the revolution and the burning of the Great Library, Assistant Librarian Eloran has no place to go except to her grandmother's home where she can work as an apprentice in making and selling cheese. Reunited with her childhood best friend Garyan their relationship changes. It is full of magic with a cheese mouse and a sentient spider plant baby just a few among among many magical beings. Eloran's love of books and stories and Garyan's inventive imagination coupled with his engineering abilities make them magnetic couple. Impossible to stop reading, I found several quotes I had to save because they perfectly captured both the joy and importance of sharing stories and books. Definitely in the running for my favorite book of the year.

We absolutely loved this one!
After the Great Library burns and her old life with it, Eloren returns to the only place that will still take her: her grandmother’s magical cheese shop on the remote island of Dew. What follows is pure charm—unicorns that refuse to be milked, a monster in the cheese caves, a mouse made of actual cheese, and a childhood friend who somehow grew up into someone tall, clever, and quietly devastating.
This is cozy fantasy at its best: small-town magic, found community, and the quiet determination of people who refuse to let the powerful grind them down. Eloren never wanted to be a shopkeeper, but watching her fight for the Magical Cheese Emporium (and every other struggling business in Dew) is deeply satisfying. And the slow-burn reunion with Garyn? Soft, sparkly, and completely earned.
If you want a story that feels like coming home after everything has burned down—complete with hard work, found family, and an unreasonable amount of enchanted cheese—this is it. We adored every page.

In "The Magical Cheese Emporium", Durst continues her streak of gentle, cozy fantasy novels about becoming the person you always wanted to be. Eloren has lost everything and we follow her as she learns how to start over in a new place and stand up for herself. There's a new sentient plant friend and the magical islands are a delight to read about every time. I can't wait for the next book in the series.

I loved this book so much!! I am such a fan of this series and am so happy I was able to get ARC access!

This series made me love cosy fantasy and this book is a really great addition to it. There were parts that felt so relatable, finding your passion and path in life, grief, complicated family dynamics. and there was also so much that felt aspirational!! I too want to march directly in front of a politicians house and tell them what's up without the dangerous consequences that might have in the United States. This book also did a great job at showing the losses of the revolution that the entire series centers around. Many of the early books glossed over the negatives to it but the most recent two have really emphasized the cost of the revolution.

Really loved the main characters, so happy we got to see more magical creatures. Not as much exploring of the world which is okay!! I really want to read a book set on the magical menagerie island the former emperor had.

Romance was cute but felt very secondary to the finding oneself of it all.

Definitely recommend!

Sarah Beth Durst is the queen of writing cozy fantasies, and THE MAGICAL CHEESE EMPORIUM is no exception. It’s a lovely story about grief and loss and rediscovering one-self, all wrapped up in a fantastical book about a mystical cheese shop, in a book that feels just like a neverending hug.

Im a HUGE fan of all things Sarah Beth Durst and she absolutely knocked this one out of the park! My favorite main characters to date and I was so excited to get back into the spellshop world with this one!

DELIGHTFUL. I adore this world and all of its many fascinating characters and creatures.

This book was an absolute delight to read. It also made me hungry for cheese!

I really loved The Magical Cheese Emporium! The story is very well written, and the characters are incredibly lovable and easy to connect with. I really enjoyed the magical atmosphere and the story kept me interested from beginning to end. It was a wonderful and heartwarming read!

I have read thirteen of Sarah Beth Durst’s books to date. Thirteen books with heart and imagination and laughter and love. I have read her vast variety of fantasy novels, from cozy books about enchanted hotels or island villages to epic fantasy about queens and trials. The Magical Cheese Emporium shows that Durst is the best in the business at making moments that matter.

Our story follows Eloren as her life has been upended. In the wake of the revolution, she has lost her job and her dearest friend and escaped to her estranged grandmother’s cheese shop. In her former childhood hometown, she is able to learn cheese mongering, reconnect with an old friend, and evaluate what in life really makes her happy.

This book hits so many of the Sarah Beth Durst staples. We have two cozy hobbies to sink into (book printing and cheese mongering), a sweet romance, and a cozy small town with meddling but well-meaning community. There are sentient plants and alien-like creatures and the most adorable mouse made of cheese. But there’s also real stakes, both personally and societally; Eloren has to figure out her purpose, and the shopkeepers have the threat of rising taxes. Durst is a masterclass in how to make tension just right in a cozy fantasy, to thread the needle to make the stakes engaging without being overwhelming.

Like two of our previous protagonists, Eloren was a librarian at the Great Library in Allysium. Somehow, Durst is able to make each of these women feel distinct. Eloren is lost after the revolution and left adrift, and this story is her starting over and finding her own way. There’s real tenderness given to Eloren’s grief over losing her best friend, a soft grace that doesn’t feel overbearing but honors her loss. She had found purpose in helping the revolutionaries distribute materials that defied propaganda, but now that the revolution is over, her contributions are no longer needed and she feels lost.

There’s a childhood friends-to-lovers arc that is engaging, but the real crux of this story is Eloren’s budding relationship with her grandmother Mika. The two have no prior relationship at the start of the book, and their relationship really shines on-page. Both characters are guarded, and the two slowly build towards vulnerability as the story progresses. Their relationship feels like the beating heart of the story and is excellent.

We have some cameos from some of our previous characters, which is always fun. But this story does not live for the nostalgia; we have a new story, with new characters, dealing with their own troubles. But, if Durst decides to do an avengers-style meetup with all of her leading ladies, I wouldn’t say no.

Thank you to Bramble, Tor Publishing, NetGalley and Sarah Beth Durst for this advanced reader copy!

The Magical Cheese Emporium is a delightful, cozy escape that is at once imaginative, relevant, and inspiring. Eloren faces a dilemma that everyone has faced at one time or another...what is my purpose? What is my passion? Set among the unicorns, Gryphons, winged cats, and other magical beings is a story of revolution, self-doubt, and complex family dynamics. Durst does what she does best here... making the ephemeral and impossible seem relatable and tangible. Her world breathes. The romance is a sweet secondary subplot, involving Eloren and Garyn as they navigate their private battles and internal and external struggles. 

The Magical Cheese Emporium helps us realize that the dream that's escaped us was with us all along. I enjoyed every moment spent here, and fans of Durst's other books will love the nods and tie-ins from other novels. Easily a five-star read for me.

Every single one of these books keeps getting better and better. I love being able to return to this world over and over again and exploring new areas. I also love how Durst is slowly knitting all of the stories together. I will never not read a book from this series. They are perfection and what reading books is all about.

5/5 stars

The Magical Cheese Emporium was everything I could have hoped for. It was perfectly cozy, filled with quirky and loveable characters, and I just loved every moment. Sarah Beth Durst's world building for this series has kept me in a chokehold and I looove LOOOOOVE getting to explore the Isles throughout this series.

The series has only gotten better and better. This was the best one so far and I'm sooo excited for the chance to have two more. I could read books from this series forever. ILY SBD!

The Crescent Islands will forever hold a place in my heart of stories! Sarah Beth Durst really knows how to write a cozy fantasy.


Eloren finds herself adrift, mentally, when the Great Library of Alysium burns down and the empire is overthrown. No job or place to truly call home anymore. Luckily for her, her grandmother, Mika, offers a place to live in exchange for apprenticing as a cheesemonger. Who knew unicorn cheese can make you relive your best memory?

Eloren slowly starts to find her way when she meets up with her childhood friend Garyn. Garyn the guy who can invent anything.

However, life is not all that well on Aver or in the city of Dew. The governor has continuously raised taxes to the point that most shop owners cannot operate. Eloren sets her mind to help the people of Dew, but she also needs to find her passion.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for allowing me to read this beautiful story in exchange for an honest review.

I love these series and this one is no different!!!! It is so magical and there is milking unicorns! Can you imagine unicorn cheese?!?!??!?? Oh the beauty of this is just perfect!!!!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Stars

- This writing is exactly why Sarah Beth Durst’s stories are almost always five stars for me. They’re whimsical, wonderfully ridiculous and cozy, but underneath all that magic is so much heart. This book explores grief, revolution, starting over, feminine strength, and the importance of finding people who will stand beside you. I loved watching Eloren build that support system through Mika, her friends, Garyn, and the people of the island.

Garyn being completely head over heels for Eloren melted me. That wholehearted kind of love gets me every time. I also loved how pieces of the previous books are woven naturally into this one, making the whole magical world feel interconnected. And somehow (obviously) my favorite characters were Houda, a magical cheese mouse, Libby, a magical spider plant with her own connection to the past, and Affi, an enormous toadlike throg living in the cheese caves.

These books brighten my soul. When life feels particularly dark, disappearing into this wonderfully bizarre world gives me somewhere lighter to be for a while. Sometimes that matters more than anything else.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC. These are my own honest opinions, shared voluntarily.

I was so excited when I got the email from NetGalley approving the ARC for The Magical Cheese Emporium. This cozy fantasy by Sarah Beth Durst was on my list of most anticipated reads. I couldn't wait to return to the Crescent Islands 🌙⭐, and it did not disappoint. This time we follow Eloren, a former library assistant whose life has been completely upended by the fall of the empire. After losing her job, her home, and someone she loved, she returns to the island of Dew to stay with her estranged grandmother, Mika, who runs the local cheese shop. Eloren has no particular interest in cheesemaking, but with nowhere else to go, she reluctantly begins learning the business while reconnecting with her childhood friend Garyn and slowly finding her place within the community.

I really loved Eloren’s story because underneath all the magical cheese🧀, unicorns🦄, sentient plants🪴, and delightfully strange creatures🧜, this is a book about grief, starting over, and figuring out who you are when the future you imagined disappears. Eloren’s journey felt surprisingly relatable, and I especially liked that her growth came through finding purpose for herself rather than simply falling into a romance. Garyn is lovely, and their relationship adds sweetness to the story, but the romance wisely stays secondary to Eloren rebuilding her life.

And, of course, the world itself is just ridiculously charming. There is a mouse made of cheese, magical milk from increasingly improbable creatures, a baby sentient spider plant, eccentric neighbors, political unrest, and enough cozy cheesemaking to make me want a plate of crackers nearby while I read. I also appreciated that the book acknowledges some of the emotional and political consequences of the revolution rather than treating the fall of the empire as an uncomplicated happy ending.

This is another lovely addition to the Spellshop world: imaginative, comforting, funny, and ultimately hopeful. If you like cozy fantasy that still has something meaningful to say about grief, community, and beginning again, this one absolutely belongs on your list. Thank you to NetGalley, Tor/Forge, and Ms. Durst for allowing me to escape into the fantastic Crescent Islands🌙⭐. I enjoyed this ARC immensely. 5 ⭐'s - Gotta love a judgmental unicorn🦄